Fragile Shadows: Book I: Blood and Shadows
by XxEyesOnlyxX
Summary: The story of a renegade assassin who has to decide between rejoining the brotherhood and joining Abstergo, and her Templar lover. Rated for violence, language, smut, and rage. Part one of the Fragile Shadows Series.
1. Prologue

_'So here's what you need to know… My name is Jack Stone. I was once an assassin, part of the brotherhood, we fight the Templars; Abstergo Industries. The two sides have fought for centuries, but every day, the assassins dwindle in number, and Abstergo gains the upper hand._

_'When I was sixteen, my Templar boyfriend, Alix Starr, killed my parents, and my three sisters, but left me alive. I'll never forget that night. It was around that time I began questioning what it is we're fighting for. Oh sure, they say it's the greater good. But, is it really? Every day we lose more assassins, everyday another body count; and for what, the greater good? At this point, I think we're just fighting for the sake of fighting. When I was younger, I used to believe what we stood for, what we're supposed to stand for. But then I realized it's all just an ideal; a story they tell us so we'll keep fighting their mindless war. The greater good, the assassins, the Templars, fuck em all._

_'That's why I got out. When I was eighteen, I left the assassins and became a ghost. Now and then the Templars find me, or I run into another assassin. I do what I can, I take out as many Templars as they send after me, but I'll never rejoin the assassins. I may have been born an assassin, raised, an assassin, but that's not the life I wanted._

_'I keep hearing rumors about this one guy they caught; Desmond Miles. The Templars think he's the key to something they've been looking for. I keep getting calls for help, encrypted emails from other assassins. They want me to rejoin the fight. Whatever this Desmond kid's DNA memory might contain, I get the feeling, we might be better off slitting his throat ourselves. If the Templars want him this badly, I can't help but wonder if he's the final weight in the scales that'll tip the balance in their favor…'_

_- Jack Stone's Diary, 21_


	2. Providence

CHAPTER I: Providence

Jack Stone stood, panting softly in the eerie quiet of the darkened warehouse. Her clothes and skin covered in blood, and spread out around her, lay the unconscious bodies of the Abstergo thugs that she'd just fought off single handed. A slow trickle of blood slid down her cheek from a gash on her temple and fresh bruises had begun to form on her arms, chest and back. Her body shook visibly from exhaustion, as she made her way through the sea of bodies, crossing the concrete floor as quickly as she was able, with no regard for the limbs of those in her way. As she reached the sliding door of the warehouse, she veered to the left where a rusty metal shelf held various chemicals and tools. From the bottom shelf, she pulled two full cans of gasoline, which she dragged over to the door and then proceeded to kick over. She watched as the strong smelling liquid from the cans spread rapidly across the floor, soaking into the clothes of the nearest Abstergo employees that lay in its path. Once she was satisfied it had spread enough, she smirked and pulled out small silver lighter. Quickly she flicked it open, and, after flicking it on with a roll of her thumb, she tossed it onto the floor watching it ignite the small rivers of gasoline. For a moment Jack watched the flames race across the floor in the odd twisting patterns that the liquid had created, until they reached the bodies of those she'd beaten. Deciding she'd better go, the girl turned and stumbling slightly, walked out of the warehouse, slamming the door shut behind her. Behind her she heard the faint clinking of the heavy iron chain and padlock she'd been using to keep people out of the warehouse. Thinking that the world could always use less Templar scum, she grabbed the chain and wrapped it through the door handles, securing it in place with the heavy padlock.

For a moment, she paused, bracing herself against the door as the exhaustion began setting in. She wobbled, but then the screaming began. The Abstergo men trapped inside had begun waking up; she could hear their cries, coughs and the vibrations as they began pounding heavily against the door she now rested against. That woke her up enough to allow her to slowly make her way around the now smoking and burning warehouse to the alley behind it, where she'd stashed her ride. Several feet behind the warehouse, she spotted the large empty crates and pallets that hid her bike from view, and made her way gingerly past them, as the throbs and aches of her beaten on body began to intensify. Ignoring them, she pulled away the torn up blue tarp that covered her beautiful black 2006 Suzuki Hayabusa, letting the tarp fly away behind her as she walked the bike out of its hiding place and climbed onto it. Pulling the matching black helmet off the front handlebar, she tugged it onto her head with a sigh. Then she heard the engine growled softly beneath her as she turned it over, and with one last glance at the now fully engulfed building behind her, Jack revved the engine, and took off like a shot into the night; the sound of roaring flames and angry sirens growing more and more distant with every minute as she flew.

Below her, Jack watched the flames leaping higher and higher in the distance as the warehouse continued to blaze. By then it had spread to other abandoned buildings and she had to admit she felt a little bad for those below now fighting the flames. With a groan she turned the bike away from the view, resigning herself to the long journey ahead of her, knowing she had to get moving. The leaders of Abstergo would by now know what she had done, and would send more men after her. She had to get going if she wanted to outrun them for a bit longer. She'd already wasted time stopping at the train station to grab her stuff from the locker she'd been renting. Reaching into her pocket, she sighed and pulled out the brand new cellphone she'd been using recently. Turning it over she opened it up and ripped out the sim card before tossing it away, and hearing it shatter somewhere in the dark. Knowing that would buy her a little time, Jack tucked the sim card neatly into a safe pocket of the messenger bag she'd retrieved from the locker, which she made sure to secure against her body. Checking her helmet was firmly in place, and pulling on her thick leather gloves, she revved the bike's engine a few times before letting the bike charge forward. Off she raced into the night, down the long stretch of highway as she began her long journey towards Boston, Massachusetts.

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Short chapter I know, but I'm having a bit of writer's block and this is the best I could do


	3. Diary Entry 2

_'I can't remember anymore what my family's faces looked like. I can't remember their voices, or who people said I looked like. Did I have mum's eyes, or were they more like da's? I think I remember Sasha's laugh. She was the oldest, the prodigy. I remember that much. But the others; I only remember their names. Three names; carved into a headstone, that stood next to mum's, da's and Sasha's; Carolyn, Leonne, and Sierra. And all I can remember about them is that they were five, three, and seven months old when Alix came after us; came after them. Killed them, spared me. Left me in a pool of my family's blood, screaming. After that, I wondered, is this why some of the others deflected? Turned Templar and ran? Because they knew what Abstergo is capable of? _

_ That question haunted me for two years, and when it got to be too much, I ghosted. I got off the grid, cash only, fake IDs, stolen credit cards, unfortunately, that didn't stop them from finding me. And it sure as hell didn't stop Alix. A year after I got out, he found me. What happened next, well, they say that love is like a knife; and I wanted to bury that knife into his fucking chest._

_- Jack's Diary 21_


End file.
